Tracey Tawhiao is a writer, poet, trained lawyer and passionate voice on the topic of the machine versus nature. She is also a painter and visual artist. This voice is central to her practice in whatever form she chooses for expression. Tawhiao is Ngai Te Rangi from Matakana Island and Tuwharetoa, Taumaranui as well as Whakatohea. It was when she spent considerable time on the island that she started her newspaper paintings that now cover the walls of many people's homes. “These paintings find the news beyond the newspaper.” As a painter she is represented by Ferner Galleries in New Zealand. Her paintings and poetry featured in the book Taiawhio, conversations with contemporary Maori Artists, published by Te Papa Press.

Tawhiao began her art career on completing her Law Degree and a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies. Disturbed by the patriarchal tone of the law as well as the paternalistic view it took of Maori she curated and featured in an art exhibition in the cow paddocks of Ruatoki called Te Urupatu.This exhibition questioned the legality of land confiscation under the NZ Settlements Act 1863 but was visually beautiful as the artists collaborated with natural light. This exhibition was documented by all the national television networks and broadcast in New Zealand and has been studied by contemporary art students at Auckland University.

Tawhiao’s poetry has been published (2002) in a Polynesian Anthology, Whetu Moana, edited by Albert Wendt/Reina Whaitiri and her poems are being studied in Stage 1 New Zealand Literature at Auckland University and at the University of Hawaii. She has had numerous poetry readings by invitation and is published in poetry websites, magazines and educational journals. Her paintings are being used to assist children’s creative learning and she has studied at tertiary level in Maori and General Art Schools. She is head of Artist & Repertoire for Heartmusic, a Music Management Company and is responsible for all the visual and media representation of her roster of artists including Dam Native and Emma Paki. She is a Director of The House of Taonga, a Maori artist house of thought and creative endeavour for the fostering of Maori Art (nature) in the World (of machine). See www.houseoftaonga.com.

In 2002 Tawhiao exhibited a slide show in New York called A Maori Art Movement to Revive the Indigenous Psyche. This celebrated the opening of a permanent forum for Indigenous People in New York City. She went on to show it at National Geographic’s All Roads Film Festival in a private viewing for the Societies Donors.